In the second week of March, ex-CIS steel billet offers had reached their highest level so far in 2012, increasing to $610-620/mt FOB. However, CIS steel billet export offers started to soften last week and this trend has also continued this week. Accordingly, CIS origin steel billet export offers have declined to $590-600/mt FOB this week, down from $600-610/mt FOB late last week.
Since the price softening still prevails, demand for ex-CIS steel billet is fairly weak and no new transaction has been concluded so far at the decreased price levels. Among the main reasons for this poor demand is the inactivity of Turkish buyers, most of whom have already met their steel billet needs and are not inclined to conclude new transactions for May.
Market sources think that buyers are waiting to see some further price softening before they start to purchase.